


Black Orchids

by Biana_Delacroix



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: AU/AH, Dark Comedy, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 12:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4746329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Biana_Delacroix/pseuds/Biana_Delacroix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all the places to meet a beautiful woman, a funeral home generally isn't one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black Orchids

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nicaha23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicaha23/gifts).



> Hello happy drabble-getter! A little bit of AU/AH dark comedy, I hope you enjoy!

He's Klaus Mikaelson, he's the King of Chicago’s underworld, he runs his empire with an iron fist and not a care in the world. Or at least – he did. Now, there is something he cares about, not that he would admit it to anyone.  

Her name's Caroline. She’s sweet and kind and a ray of sunshine. Even to someone as undeserving as him.

It's a dark world, the funeral parlor where she works, but when she's in it, everything is just a little brighter. And even though you wouldn't expect it, it's the perfect place for Caroline. She swoops in on the grieving, offering a kind word, a smile, a shoulder to cry on and suddenly, what is so dark doesn't seem that way after all. There is light at the end of the tunnel and it comes with blonde curls and a sweet voice.

Of course, Klaus needs no such light. He's more than happy to live in the dark underbelly of his criminal empire, but there's no denying that when that sweet smile is turned his way, he yearns for more, for another moment, another word, another laugh.

He always wants another chance.

So what if he decides to become proactive in making that happen?

Klaus considers it good form to attend the funerals of certain men who may or may not have fallen under his command. Whether he gave the kill order himself is never known, but he has absolutely no problem in showing his face, in reminding the assembled of the power he holds. There’s nothing like the rush of power when all conversation and crying ceases, the fear of the room practically humming in the air.

Of course, there is one person who is never afraid. Caroline never flinched when she saw him walk through the door the first time, only offered that sweet smile and asked how he knew the deceased. And since he couldn’t very well tell her that he had put a bullet in the man’s skull two nights ago, he simply named himself as a friend and Caroline had reached out, held his hand and Klaus swore his cold heart stopped for just a second.

He needed more. Luckily for him, death is a business.

_xxx_

“We really should stop meeting like this, love,”

Caroline smirked to herself, turning away from adjusting a funeral wreath to be met with the familiar sight of Klaus in a dark suit, looking possibly a little too happy for a man who was attending his fifth funeral in three weeks.

“Mr. Mikaelson-“

“ _Klaus,_ sweetheart, how many times have I asked you?”

“Sorry, _Klaus,_ how are you holding up today?”

He tilted his head, giving her a dimpled grin. “I’m talking to you, Caroline, I’m holding up just fine.”

Caroline just raised one perfect eyebrow. “Oh? You weren’t good friends with-“, she handed him a pamphlet, “-Mason Lockwood?”

As a matter of fact, he’d liked Mason well enough until it turned out he was actually planning on staging a coup. Snapping his neck had been fun.

“We were old friends. From college.” His charm took him far and he could tell that the blonde beauty was more affected than she let on. But still she remained firmly unflappable.

“It must be hard for you, losing so many old friends so recently,” she remarked, and Klaus smirked at the slyness in her tone. Beautiful and compassionate she may be, but she was no idiot and he wanted nothing more than to see just how sharp her wit really was.

But the dead body in the room tended to kill the mood.

Caroline was pulled from their little bubble abruptly and he knew he wasn’t imagining the look of regret that crossed her face. But, she was a professional. “Excuse me Klaus, I have to speak with the Lockwood family,” she whispered quickly before stepping past him, only to be stopped by a warm hand on her arm.

“Have dinner with me?” Klaus blurted out. He definitely hadn’t meant to do that. He’d wanted to play their little game a while longer but watching her walk away affected him more than he realized and Klaus Mikaelson had never been one to wait around for what he wanted.

“D – dinner?” Caroline stuttered, not expecting to be asked out on a date in the middle of a funeral. “Your friend’s dead,” she said disbelievingly.

“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t intend to have him join us,” Klaus said with a shrug, his other hand coming up to squeeze her other arm so that they stood quite close. It was probably too close to be appropriate, but Caroline just reasoned that she could say she was comforting him. Nobody was expected to act totally normal at a funeral, right? And so what if he asked her out in the middle of one, his cologne was going to her head and there was no denying that perfect grin and panty-dropping accent.

“Saturday night. Pick me up at eight.”

There was no mistaking the delight on his face as she walked away, and as she went through her duties, she thought back on the five funerals in the past few weeks and the one man they had in common.

Caroline Forbes was no idiot. Klaus was dangerous, for reasons she could probably guess.

But then, she could be dangerous too. And one man was nothing she couldn’t handle.

_xxx_

“Seriously? You pushed your own brother into a lake?”

“Sweetheart, five minutes with Kol and you’d be pushing him into lakes too.”

Their laughter comes easily, their chemistry is better than even Klaus could’ve predicted. Without a casket and a crying widow, it’s much easier to coax that perfect smile forward, and he finds he can bask in it for ages.

There’s one little hiccup, and it comes in the form of Connor Jordan, who Klaus knows is one of the five members of the police taskforce that’s been trying to bring him down for months. It’s of nearly no consequence to _him,_ but Caroline is laughing and smiling and in the corner of his eye, Klaus can see the wheels in Connor’s head turning, wondering if Caroline is an asset to be used in that investigation.

It’s almost startling how quickly that makes his blood boil, the thought of anyone using her against him.

He says goodnight to Caroline like a perfect gentleman, not that he could pretend to be one. When he kisses her, he presses her against her door, lets his hands wrap around her waist, the promise of more to come. And maybe if he wasn’t preoccupied with planning murders he’d seduce her for more, but Caroline deserves to be courted and there’s blood to be spilt.

If only he knew his job would be easier than he could’ve imagined.

_xxx_

“So how does a girl like you end up working with dead bodies?” He’d wanted to ask the question for ages, but it never seemed right. Now though, Caroline’s tucked into his side while they stroll down the city streets, and they don’t want to stop anytime soon.

“First of all, I don’t work with dead bodies, I help grieving families say goodbye to their loved ones,” Caroline said, with no small amount of pride.

“You have to admit, love, dead bodies are an unavoidable part of that package.”

Caroline rolled her eyes, pressing into Klaus further to brace against the chilly evening air. “Fine, but it’s not _all_ that. Mostly it’s a lot of planning. I’m good at that – planning parties. I figured I’d put it to good use.”

“Why not plan something more cheerful?”

Caroline shrugged. “Business is good.”

Klaus couldn’t help but smile to himself, “I suppose people always have to die.”

“Yeah, they do,” said Caroline, her voice suddenly quieter. “What about you?” she asked, changing the subject. “You work at a law firm, right?”

“Right, it’s a family thing,” he explained, keeping his answer purposefully vague. But Caroline was smart enough to know when he was being cagey.

“I guess it must be interesting?”

“It fills the days,” he said, “I’d rather have _you_ to fill my nights.” He grinned down at her but she just frowned slightly and he wondered if he’d turned the conversation sour. A flash of movement caught his eye and he looked up to see Galen Vaughn, another taskforce member, ducking into a store across the street. It was a tail and he knew it, and he cursed at having Caroline exposed again.

One more on the to-do list it was.

It turned out it would be crossed off sooner than he imagined.

_xxx_

“We have to talk, Niklaus.”

Elijah’s tone belied a lecture and Klaus had plans with Caroline he did not intend to be late for, so he waved Elijah forward, hoping this would be over quickly.

“If you wanted to take out the Five you should’ve consulted me, three are dead already and it just looks suspicious.”

“Elijah-“

“You should’ve been more subtle about the pattern, it’s been one every few days and you’re being too predictable, you’ll just make it easy-“

“For God’s sake Elijah-“

“Chicago PD will only double down their efforts, and it’ll be more of a hassle-“

“Elijah! _It wasn’t me.”_

His older brother stopped in his tracks, staring at him like he’d grown a second head. “Don’t be ridiculous Klaus, lying to me doesn’t change anything.”

Klaus just rolled his eyes, “Do you really think I’d bother? I’m not lying, Elijah. I won’t deny wanting them dead, but they must have other enemies, because I haven’t been involved.”

Elijah looked so bewildered, it was almost tempting to get a camera. “Oh. Well then.”

Klaus nodded, “Now, if you don’t mind, I have plans.”

Elijah turned to leave, but not before regaining some of his composure. “The funeral director again? I wouldn’t have expected you to be so infatuated.”

Klaus smiled, in spite of himself. “Brother, you don’t know the half of it.”

_xxx_

They’d stayed in at Caroline’s, her apartment was large and beautifully decorated, nothing like the dark funeral parlour, but exactly the sort of home he’d imagined her having.

Not that he’d paid much attention to the décor. Nothing was more beautiful than Caroline herself. And if he’d thought her beautiful dressed in somber black suits, gorgeous on dates in short dresses that teased him with the briefest glimpses, that was nothing compared to how stunning she was when she wore nothing at all.

Her skin was slicked with sweat as they lay in her bed, lazy and sated, wrapped up in each other. Klaus kept his grip on her iron clad, as if he was afraid she’d disappear in smoke now that he’d finally had a taste of how indescribably elating it was to be with her. As he pressed small kisses into her neck, she squirmed against him, her soft laughter just pushing him to bring her closer.

“Ugh, it’s too hot with you here,” she teased, “I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea.”

“Well sweetheart, if you’re really not sure…” he slipped a hand down to the apex of her thighs but before he could get much farther, she pressed a small hand to his chest.

“I wasn’t kidding, it’s definitely too hot.”

Klaus sighed good-naturedly, “I’ll get the window, you stay here love.”

She grinned, “Oh, I won’t be going anywhere.” And why would she when the view of his ass was this good?

Klaus smirked, knowing what was on her mind, and he turned his attention to the window which overlooked a quiet street. And Klaus was so distracted he almost missed it, but there was no mistaking the unmarked car, recognizing the sedans that Chicago PD liked to use when they were stalking out a place.

_Fuck._ And to think he thought this would be a good night.

_xxx_

If he thought he’d been angry at the Five before, he was seething now. Before, they’d been a minor thorn in his side, but when he was forced away from Caroline’s bed, with the woman in question naked and wanting still in it, he was ready to rip out hearts.

Once he’d worked up the effort to leave Caroline with a kiss and a hurried explanation of a family emergency, he’d called his brother, who’d been able to confirm that Alexander was on patrol. And if it wasn’t bad enough that the bastard had tried to use his own sister against him, he was now parked outside Caroline’s house for the forseeable future.

He couldn’t let this continue. Other enemies be damned, this blood was going to be on his hands, and he wasn’t waiting.

It was just before dawn when Alexander finally broke protocol, as Klaus knew he would, and took a walk. He tailed the man for a block before he lost him around a corner. It’d been years since anyone had actually managed to evade Klaus, and he prowled the street, looking for detective before hearing a sharp, unmistakable cry.

The alley was cramped and filthy, but Klaus only had eyes for the body of what was supposed to be _his_ victim falling to the ground, a neat stab wound in his neck.

And once he was sure Alexander was dead, he focused on the person holding the knife.

“No,” he whispered in disbelief. “You’re not-“

“Seriously, Klaus?” Caroline wiped the blood off her knife with her leather glove. “You think you’re the only one in this relationship who knows how to drop a body?”

Klaus just gaped, and Caroline giggled, walking up to him and pecking him on the lips, completely unconcerned with the body behind her. “Hey, people have to die but sometimes business is slow. A girls’ gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

She pulled away but that was never going to be enough for Klaus, the adrenaline of the hunt gone to his head and if he couldn't have Alexander, then he'd claim her as a prize. One arm went around her waist, pulling her flush against him, lips seeking her's, coaxing her to open up her darkest secrets. He didn't hesitate guiding her until her back hit the brick wall where he could easily cover her entirely, kissing her deeper, holding her tighter. 

“You kill people?” Klaus managed to ask.

Caroline raised an eyebrow, “Are you really going to get judgy with me right now? Because I figured out what you do for a living, and it does _not_ involve a law firm.”

“But – the Five-“

“The guys that’ve been tailing us? They were really annoying, and you weren’t doing anything about it.”

“I was going to!” he insisted, his bewilderment finally broken. And then he couldn’t help but smile widely because his sweet, lovely ray of sunshine was deep down, just as dark as he was. And suddenly, he knew he’d never loved her more.

“Come along, love,” he said, pulling her out of the alley.

“Are we getting breakfast?”

Klaus just laughed, pulling her closer. “Breakfast at your place – but before that, I believe I promised you a round two earlier.”

They took off, but not before Klaus glanced back at the alley where he knew the body would be found in just a few hours.

“Relax,” Caroline said, bringing his focus back to her. “You know I’ll plan him a _great_ funeral.”


End file.
